Under Pressure

Bond-dependent interactions between magnetic moments can lead to strong frustration and nontrivial ground states. In particular, the extended Kitaev model can host a spin liquid state or different frozen states depending on the strength of the additional Heisenberg interaction. In experiments, the relative interaction strengths in materials can be varied by applying pressure.

In this contribution I will present how the muon spin rotation technique can be used to study such materials and show examples of our recent high-pressure studies in Kitaev candidate materials based on iridium. I will then discuss the discovery of a new high-pressure phase in α-RuCl₃ and possible scenarios that can be responsible for it.